LA Complex Television Show: New Gay Black Men Storyline Tariq & Kal Make Out!!!

A new television  show called the LA Complex has arrived on Much Music and one storyline deals with gay black men! Of course, I am pleased to see a gay storyline involving gay black men because there is a paucity of our representation on television.

However, a part of me is conflicted because a closeted rapper on the down low that’s kind of lame. It seems very stereotypical to me and a myopic representation of gay black men.

One guy is supposed to hard and tough like a thug and I guess the other guy is supposed to soft.  So a black man has to be a rapper and in the closet? Couldn’t the characters be actors or something else other than musicians?  So of course black men can only be rap artists in the music industry.

Why does  a young black man have to be a stereotypical rap artist  ? Give me a break!

Black men whether gay or straight are still stereotyped into binary constructions which are deleterious.

I wish the writers would expand a bit about the possibilities about the realities of gay black men. However, I understand the LA Complex is a fiction and a television show. I will continue to watch the show but I cringe at the character that is supposed to be the hard rapper.